This year’s garden

So we planted a garden this year. My hope is that it turns out better than my previous two attempts.

Three years ago, I borrowed Mr. Jim’s tiller and tilled up the backyard quite a bit. Your mom laughed at me while I was bouncing along tilling up that roughly 20 feet by 50 feet patch of ground. I tell myself the reason she kept watching me with that amused look on her face was because I had my shirt off doing man stuff in the yard, but I could be wrong. When it was said and done, I’d planted some beans, squash, peppers, tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelon, and probably some other stuff I can’t remember. It was particularly dry that year, so I had to water the garden quite a bit. And when I went away on business for a few days, you guys didn’t do crap about watering it or weeding and I’d always have a mess on my hands to get it back to normal once I got back. And then that cow got in the garden and wrecked the corn and pretty much everything else. It was a disaster, but we got some peas and some squash out of it. I tell myself I learned some lessons from that, but who knows.

And then last year, I decided to try this three sisters method where you plant corn, pole beans, and squash together in a circle. That went well until the coons and deer started eating the corn and the armadillos dug up most of the plants. Deciding to just mow over those hills and give up in about July was what I consider a mercy killing.

Having learned some lessons, this year will hopefully be different. Last Saturday, we went to Home Depot and bought a raised bed kit. You guys seemed to really enjoy putting it together, adding the dirt, and planting the beans, cucumbers, and okra. Maybe tomorrow we will plant some other stuff.

The point is that I think building stuff and planting/growing stuff is something you need to be familiar with. It seems to me that being able to grow your own food is something men need to know how to do. Planning something out and learning patience while you watch it grow is a valuable life lesson. The reward is that you get to eat the end result and that is the payoff for your efforts. Planning and patience pays off – yeah, that’s a good lesson for you to remember.

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Monkey Bread

You know how good the monkey bread I make is. Well, here is how its done.

INGREDIENTS

1/2  cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cans (16.3 oz each) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

1 small box of raisins

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon milk

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 350°F. In a large storage plastic food bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon. Separate dough into 16 biscuits and cut each into quarters. Shake in bag with raisins to coat. Place dough in a bundt pan.  In small bowl, mix the brown sugar and butter. Then pour over the biscuit pieces. Bake 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate. Mix confectioner sugar and milk in a bowl and drizzle over the top. Enjoy!

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The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition

This is your go-to recipe book if you ever need to cook something and you really want it to be good. The folks at Cooks Illustrated have compiled these recipes. They test them several different ways to make sure that the final recipe is the best. I like field tested stuff and gave this to your grandmother for Christmas last year. She reports that its solid. And if she says so, you can take it to the bank.

Even if you’re reading this 10 years from now, I sincerely believe these recipes will still be good unless technologically superior robot cooks are preparing you exactly what you want and exactly how you like it. Throw away all those old crusty cookbooks mom is probably going to try to give you because they’re sitting around collecting dust and she wants to get rid of them to make room for more candles and/or picture frames. I tasted some of that stuff in there.

Its all crap.

This is truly the ONLY cookbook that covers most everything and delivers. Click the link and get it if you need it.

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